D.J. Bodden

The Voidburned Queen is the second book in D. J. Bodden’s new Zack Lancestrom series, itself part of the larger FiveFold Universe. In the last book, Zack escaped his homeworld of Politeia in a stolen shuttle, narrowly avoiding a last minute interception by the Federal Fleet, who now know that Zack has in his possession a very, very old super AI, the thing Federal Fleet most fears.

And now that he has gotten away in the company of a rogue robot, now what? I was very much looking forward to seeing the rest of the universe that Bodden had put together, and I was not disappointed by The Voidburned Queen.

Once freed from his home, there are worlds to explore, deals to be made, plots to be hatched [or thwarted], rivals and villains to challenge. The setup here is very much in the tradition of the classic space RPG Traveller, and the books that inspired it like Space Viking, The Winds of Gath, and Ensign Flandry.

The only one of those I have read is Space Viking, by H. Beam Piper, but since Ensign Flandry is by Poul Anderson I have a hunch I would probably like that one too. Much like these classics of space opera, the universe Zack finds himself in is harsh and cruel, but also full of opportunity for the lucky and resourceful.

And also like Traveller, the events he finds himself involved in alternate between politics, trade, and desperate firefights. Which is exactly where Zack finds himself at the end of book one, which leads directly into the events of book two. Where a series of increasingly steep bets pays off very handsomely indeed. The action is constant, the intrigue convoluted, and above all I just enjoy seeing Zack in action. He may be one step from a pirate, but he has a heart of gold.

Much of the flavor of Zack’s universe is borrowed from the Greeks. Zack’s use of a memory palace, the names of ships like Artemisia of Cara, or Zack’s homeworld of Politeia, openly modeled on Plato’s Republic. Part of the fun comes from seeing how all the borrowed pieces get put together in a new way.

While the narrative is well-contained within this book, coming to a satisfactory conclusion, there are plenty of other things lurking in the background to provide Zack with challenge and adventure for years to come. I look forward to it.

I received an advanced review copy from the author.… (más)

The Starborn Heir by D. J. Bodden is a heist, a caper, an adventure, and a space opera. That sounds like a lot, but it feels bigger on the inside than it might appear from the outside. Since book 2 is already queued up for release in May, you know that Zack Lancestrom’s adventures have only just begun.

I enjoyed The Starborn Heir, as I am in general a fan of this kind of space opera, but this book seems to have Bodden’s characteristic flavor. Nothing is ever quite what it seems at first. Zack, for example, manages to be rather likeable, despite his arrogance and privilege. More than a bit of a lovable rogue. Try him, you’ll see.

When Zack decides to throw away his comfortable sinecure in the planetary government of Politeia, it is perhaps the first real decision he has made for himself. Politeia is a well-oiled machine, and Zack has been in long preparation to take his father’s place. Unfortunately, that turns out to be not what he wants. What he wants, is the freedom and adventure of space [the space opera part]. But to make that happen, first he has to figure a way offplanet when he no longer has any money, and his father put him on the no-fly list, just to be sure.

Thus, The Starborn Heir makes its first pivot, into a heist. We get to follow Zack has he assembles his team, schemes, steals, and escapes. Zack hooks up with an old flame, hires a fearsome mercenary, recruits an engineer, and frees a very, very old AI. Any like any good caper, everyone has got their own angles they are working. But there’s more. Nothing is ever what it seems. The political machinations of Politeia, the factions, infighting, and corruption, are just a taste of the wider universe.

And what a universe we get glimpses of! As we move quickly through the different phases of the book, new and interesting revelations come quickly. For example, at first it seems like Zack's quest is mostly a bit of personal rebellion, but gradually we see that Zack may not exactly be the architect of his own destiny, that there is insurrection afoot on Politeia, the shadow creatures are spreading, and the star spiders are playing the long game.

What are the shadow creatures and who are the star spiders? Why don’t you grab a copy and find out?

I received an advanced review copy from the author.… (más)

The Balance is everything. It is what enables vampires and werewolves and far stranger things to co-exist with ordinary people, after a fashion. But after Jonas thwarts an attempt by the Order to take control of the Agency, the supernatural law enforcement that maintains the Balance, it becomes clear that the Balance itself is in danger.

White Winter picks up immediately after the events of Black Fall. Jonas has graduated, after a fashion, by testing out of his training with the Agency. By which I mean that he created an ad hoc alliance of human vigilantes, vampires, and werewolves to rescue his mother from her oldest friend, who happened to be possessed by a demon.

But that means he now has to go out in the world, and deal with the many, many problems that arise when you are trying to keep supernaturals both secret, and in check. I was particularly haunted by a program of the Agency which dispatched Puppeteers, vampires especially skilled in manipulating many people at once, to Rust Belt towns fallen on hard times. The vampire eased the misery of those left behind by globalization, giving them purpose and hope again, for the price of a pint of blood each, once every two weeks.

Of course, the vampire cannot make the jobs come back. All they can do is provide a more or less pleasant illusion for a few years, until everyone has built up an immunity to the manipulation, and the vampire moves on the next town. I am a live not by lies kind of guy, so I naturally recoil against this kind of thing. And I appreciate Bodden’s portrait of this doomed small town, because not everyone is OK with the deal. And eventually, the reckoning comes due regardless.

This is an interesting sub-theme of the supernatural world of The Black Year series. Part of the attraction of not just vampirism, but also far worse things that you will meet in this book, is that it provides a way to cheat death, at least for a while. Yet, the reaper eventually comes for everyone. The debt of life must be paid, and unnatural long life is often purchased at a price more dear than life itself. Thus the reckoning, when it finally arrives, is harder than it would have been if nature had been allowed to take its course.

This is probably a little easier to see if you don’t find vampirism attractive, as I do not. When I was a teenager, my friends wanted to play the White Wolf RPG Vampire: The Masquerade. The whole point of that game was to be a vampire, but I simply never wanted to be a monster; I wanted to kill them. This was a bit of a sticking point. I’d rather indulge in power fantasies by playing Halo or Doom.

Yet even here, neither vampirism nor lycanthropy make you evil, per se. Although they certainly do present some rather fierce temptations. While some do choose their condition, many more do not, becoming supernatural through being in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Thus, for Jonas and his friends, they must seek to do good and avoid evil despite the obstacles placed in their path. This is the core which makes this more than just another YA vampire story.

I received a copy of this book from the author’s publicist.… (más)

What happens when the AIs you create to run the world’s first VR MMORPG are method actors who take their roles entirely too seriously? Alan Campbell, and perhaps the rest of the world, is about to find out.

LitRPG is a hot genre at present. Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One is probably the most successful book largely about videogames, and lots and lots of other authors are chasing that success. I find my enjoyment of such books tends to vary inversely with how much time the author spends trying to recapitulate the mechanics of logging into a computer and interacting with the user interface of a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. Fortunately, D. J. Bodden’s Nomad Soul is not that style of book.

To start, Alan Campbell is not your typical LitRPG protagonist. Sure, he likes videogames, but he is an HR generalist. I find that a bold choice, which has interesting downstream consequences. This is the second of Bodden’s books that I have reviewed, and I find that Bodden has a talent for characterization that I enjoy. Alan is not an engineer, or any other kind of technical specialty. His primary skill in life is smooth-talking, and this bleeds over into Viridian Gate when he bullies the lead hardware engineer into letting him login into the game after an all-hands meeting by the CEO and founder declares the project is dead.

Perhaps it is easier to avoid such a focus on game mechanics when Alan doesn’t have any natural inclination to solve problems by killing them. Fortunately the whole world within Viridian Gate is setup to allow for this. The world design has a pseudo-Classical flair, and a group of AIs modeled on pagan deities of the Mediterranean world run the game dynamically, allowing the game to adjust on the fly to what players do. Which means that Alan very much can succeed at talking his way out of problems. Most of the time.

In a refreshing change from many LitRPG style books, Alan doesn’t quickly become an unstoppable monster in the game, leveling up beyond all reason. Rather, when he does get in a fight, he tends to be beaten badly. He needs the help of others to survive, and to actually play out his role to do so. The capabilities of the AIs that run the game world make this possible, but their very capability has a hint of menace behind it. The AIs are not Three Laws safe. In fact, I get the impression that no one ever thought to ask that question, which fits in with the portrayal of startup culture within the book. In much the same way that Elon Musk has never heard of a process engineer or what they might do for Tesla, Robert Osmark doesn’t seem particularly interested in what might happen if the AIs you programmed to be gods start acting as if they were, as long as the game ships on time.

Nonetheless, I kind of want to play this game. Like Soda Pop Soldier, this game sounds like an amazing experience. It has that whiff of adventure that our world often lacks. Alan clearly feels the same way. The Victorian period strikes me like that. Not safe, at all, but possibly more fun. It helps that the part of the game Alan interacts with is ”More Roman than fantasy MMO” in the words of Robert’s assistant. In game, it is called Imperial, but the time period New Viridia is modeled on seems more like the Middle Republic period. Their social mores are harsh, but also just. The army is mostly composed of citizen levies among families of property, much like the Polybian army. However, unlike the real Rome, New Viridia appears to lack the structural causes that pushed Rome into endless war. In fact, their military has gone a bit to seed, although the have maintained a cadre for future expansion.

Out in the real world, Robert Osmark’s company has some shady connections. This actually feels about right too, insofar as anything the CIA tends to be involved in domestically is a bit of a cluster. See, for example the Church Committee. The CIA has operators, but they tend to be a little too whack or not quite good enough to be in special forces. Silicon valley in general owes its existence to defense contracts, so this is par for the course. And I haven’t even gotten to the ending, which was enough to keep me up at night after I read it. Bodden somehow managed to do something both entirely expected and unexpected at the same time. I hesitate to reveal more, since in de novo reviews I at least try not to give too much away. However, I can say I really liked this book, and I look forward to seeing what trouble Alan gets into next.

I received a copy of this book from the author’s publicist.… (más)